Her face sagged with the weight of what she’d done. It had felt so right in the moment, but now she wondered if it had been the best choice. Maybe Mark hadn’t really wanted to go along with what his brother had done, but he was too coward to shut him down. She wondered if she’d taken her aggression toward Kevin and lashed out on Mark in his place. She had possibly removed the wrong person from the planet.
“It’s okay. What’s done is done and he had it coming.”
“But did he?” she asked with a bit of a whimper. Her face screwed up like she was about to cry.
Chris pulled her in toward him. His shoulder burned with the movement, but he let her sob into his chest as long as she wanted. She had always tried to do what she thought was best for him. It was only fair that he returned the favor.
With her crying fit under control, she wiped her eyes and her face hardened against what she knew had to come next. She still planned to take down Kevin.
“The way out is that way,” she said, pointing off to the west. “Go get the police. I’ll take care of business here.”
“Are you insane? I’m coming with you!”
Jess shook her head. “You can’t fight with a shoulder like that.”
Chris stood up, wobbly and unbalanced, but trying to assert just how okay he was. “You might need help. It’s a grown man with an ax! You have a Wal-Mart pocketknife!”
Jess laughed, although she didn’t think she was supposed to find it funny at all. “I have to save Steph and you have to get help. That’s the only way I can see this working.”
Chris remained stoic as she got to her feet. “No,” he said adamantly. “I’m going to help you and we’ll all hobble out of here together.”
Chris also stood. She faced him. Her head fell at the height of his chest. He was more muscular, stronger, more physically prepared for the task ahead, but she could see that he simply wasn’t ready for what they’d be rushing in to.
“He may have the physical advantage,” she thought to herself, “but I have the guts.”
Chris stared down at her hard. His back was slumped a bit from the pain of his wounds, but more than that, he looked like a man defeated and walking to his fate. They were both aware that he wouldn’t leave her side.
“This could turn out like absolute shit,” Jess said quietly.
“If you’re rushing back in, then let’s do this thing,” he replied with no enthusiasm. He spoke calmly like a man awaiting his walk to the gallows.
Jess forged the path ahead and Chris followed just behind her. Their movements were careful and calculated. Jess was certain that Kevin had the wherewithal to spy on them, but she just kept moving on in the direction she thought they might find Steph. If he was prepared for them, their survival odds went down drastically, but at the same time, she felt confident.
She’d heard a myth a long time ago that in cowboy stand-offs, the person who drew second actually had a better chance of making it out alive. Supposedly the second person that pulled their gun was so frantically on edge they’d have faster reflexes. She had no idea if it was true, but it gave her some hope that if they were being watched, her reaction time would be increased.
Jess hated the feel of Mark’s blood drying against her skin. She’d only barely cleaned her own off and now she had what amounted to a stranger’s innards hardening on her skin. It was itchy and grimy, but at the same time, it felt a little like war paint. Jess didn’t have any siblings, but she could imagine the response that seeing the death of your family member painted all over their murderer. She wondered just how much of a monster she looked like. She was certain that her face was still slathered with a thick layer of drying Mark blood.
Dropping to a crouch, she listened to the sounds of their surroundings. The usual natural sounds were still there in the background, but she was concentrating for anything else that wasn’t normally there. Chris knelt down beside her as she focused. There wasn’t anything noteworthy, but she couldn’t shake the feeling they were being watched. She wondered if she’d driven herself into paranoia and was only imagining it all, but at the same time, she knew it was so likely they were being monitored that not believing it would be a fatal mistake.
The sky was still bright and the summer sun from behind the clouds was baking the moisture out of everything. Jess was worried that sunset would still catch them at the wrong time.
“Tonight or tomorrow?” she asked Chris after sharing her concerns.
“Let’s do this tonight,” he replied. He wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and the more they delayed, the more their wounds would become infected and painful. He was especially worried about how bad Jess’s leg was looking.
Jess bit her lower lip in consideration of what to do next. Chris watched her as she thought. He could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she formulated a plan and made a strategy. She was beautiful and terrifying, and he couldn’t understand how anything could possibly happen to her. She was kind and wonderful and didn’t deserve to die out here. Mother Nature or God or someone else needed to look down on them and see that Jess was an integral part of how the world worked. Now that she’d found genuine strength and bravery like only the most devoted soldiers, he couldn’t imagine a world without her.
Jess raised an eyebrow at him and he realized he was staring. He shrugged and she motioned to continue on. They were just getting ready to give up thinking they weren’t going to find the small camp that Kevin had likely set up. Steph was completely silent. There was concern she might even be dead.
Jess suddenly smelled smoke in the air. It was faint, but it was perceptible.
“Do you think we somehow circled back toward the campsites?” Jess asked.
Chris frowned. “No, I don’t think so.”
Jess wondered if Kevin was maybe cooking himself something to eat. Her thoughts darkened and she imagined him using the licking flames and heat to torment Steph. She immediately rejected the idea because the imagined victim wasn’t making a useful peep.
The smell was strangely comforting, like it normally was on any other given morning of their normal camping trips. It tingled the nose and ignited a slew of pleasant old memories.
“There,” Chris said nearly under his breath. He pointed over her shoulder at the nearly imperceptible cloud of grey rising up toward the leaf canopy of the trees. The heat left wobbling visions of the small clearing. Jess and Chris crept up on the scene.
Chris dared a glance at the site.
“There’s a little brown pup tent. A campfire. I can’t really see much else.”
Jess nodded and leaned forward for her own look. She couldn’t see a single sign of Kevin’s recent presence besides the fire, which was more like a smoldering mass of old logs. She couldn’t see Steph.
Jess wondered if he’d already killed her and buried her in a shallow grave somewhere, but there was no way to know. It had become a waiting game and their side was at a distinct disadvantage. Chris sat down tucked into the bush to wait. Jess wanted to stay crouched and alert, ready to leap from her toes into a sprint at a moment’s notice of danger, but found that trying to stay balanced and prepped was exhausting for her legs. They muscles quivered until she had no choice, but to plop down next to him.
They spared occasional peeks through the thin branches and thick leaves, but there wasn’t much to see. Kevin wasn’t ready to reveal himself and they weren’t going to walk around looking for trouble. He’d come back eventually, they figured. There was no chance he’d let them leave willingly and definitely not with what they’d seen.
Dusk began to fall and the sun cast golden shades of orange across their secret location. The trees were more spaced out in the area they sat in. The sky was more welcomed in this place, which Jess found strange considering how secluded and dangerous the whole rest of the forest now felt to her. She wasn’t sure she’d ever manage to go camping again. It didn’t seem like an enjoyable activity anymore.
She knew for sure she wouldn�
��t be able to bring herself back to this specific campsite. Regardless of its convenient location in relation to home, it wasn’t an exciting place of adventure and burnt marshmallows like it once had been. Now she’d always look at this place and see the face of the murdered girl. The slashes all over Steph’s body. The wallowing terror of Mark’s face before she ended his life. It was a place full of negativity and darkness.
As the sun fell completely under the horizon, the darkness spread like a threat over the landscape. The sky was alight with a million billion little stars, easily viewed without clouds. All the light pollution of the city wasn’t an issue out here.
Chris and Jess looked up at the heavens. It was incredible and inspiring.
“I love you,” Chris whispered.
“I love you, too,” Jess replied. Despite knowing that she was covered in another man’s blood and looked like hell, she leaned in and kissed Chris deeply and passionately. It felt like their souls were reignited.
They gazed into each other’s eyes for a bit, just white spots hardly visible in the blackness. The campfire in the center of the site had died out almost completely. A small amount of sizzling and crackling was still audible and there was a faint glow from inside the circle of rocks that surrounded the logs.
The sound of footsteps shocked them back into reality. A fresh log was thrown on the pile creating a cascade of bright orange sparks that danced upward into the trees. In the brief flurry of glowing embers, they could see Kevin standing tall and menacing over the building blaze. With light cast from below, he looked demonic and vile.
They were both well back in their hiding place watching as he went to the small tent. He folded back a flap and reached inside. Roughly, he pulled out a limp figure.
“Wake up,” he growled smacking his victim.
The person had already begun to stir from getting pulled across the uneven ground, but began to squirm and whine more intently. As the flames flickered higher feeding on dried wood, it became apparent it was Steph, bound and gagged with duct tape.
“Do you know what they did to my brother?” he said getting on his knees and crawling further back into the tent.
Steph moaned, unable to reply any other way.
Kevin reemerged holding the large knife with the terrifying edge. “They killed him. Specifically, the woman did. She gutted him like a fish.”
Though they couldn’t see Steph’s eyes, they could tell she was fixed on the knife.
“Do you think I’m upset?” he asked her.
Steph noncommittally groaned.
“Well, I’m not. Little shit never had a real spine. He liked to push people around, but as soon as he had to get his hands really dirty, it was always ‘Oh, Kevin, please help me.’ Well, I was a good brother. I helped him, but always in the back of my mind, I knew he’d get himself into trouble, and now he did.”
Kevin spun the knife around in his hand, the handle and blade catching the light as he turned it.
“I must admit, that woman has a certain fascination. Most of them aren’t like that. Are you like that?”
Steph didn’t respond. Kevin’s form cast a huge, menacing shadow across her.
“Let’s find out.” He walked over and ripped the tape of her mouth rough enough to remove some skin. She let out a yelp as he pulled it off. “You listening?”
She stared up at him, dumbfounded and blind with fear, but she managed a weak nod.
Kevin cut the bonds on her ankles and then on her wrists. Steph rolled onto her stomach and scrambled up onto all fours. Their eyes met and he gestured at the knife offering it up, handle out, with a flourishing gesture like a gameshow host.
Steph reached out and snatched it holding it pointed at him. “You get the fuck away from me!”
Kevin let out one of his evil laughs and backed up toward the fire a few steps. Steph scrambled to her feet never taking her eyes off him.
“Come on,” Kevin mocked. “Take your best shot.”
Steph kept the blade trained on him taking her own steps backward. “Stay away!” she screamed again. She turned and began to race away.
Jess was ready to burst out of the bushes and help, but Chris pulled her back with a touch of his hand. They watched as Steph continued to try and separate herself from the situation.
“Come on!” Kevin bellowed at her. He pounded his chest with a fist. “I’m right here! Don’t you have the balls, woman?”
Steph had put a healthy distance between them. She turned and began to sprint away as fast as her legs would carry her. In one swift motion Kevin bent and grabbed the ax that had been on the far side of the fire out of view. With perfect ease, he whipped the hefty weapon with little more than a grunt. It swept through the air in an arc and was followed by a thud and a blood-curdling shriek.
Jess put her hands over her mouth, as if to hold her shock on the inside. Chris recoiled and winced. Jess couldn’t believe where that weapon’s edge might have headed if she’d run out a second sooner to try to finish the job herself.
Kevin stomped off into the dark and returned a moment later dragging Steph by the back of her shirt. The ax was in his free hand. Her blond hair hung over her face and her arms flopped limply dragging her fingers through the dirt. Like garbage, he tossed her aside face first on the outskirts of the circle of light.
“Come out,” Kevin said turning toward their hiding spot. “I know you’re there.”
Jess jumped in surprise and looked at Chris who seemed equally startled.
“Come out or you’ll get the same as her,” he said more fiercely. “You breathe so fucking loud, the deaf could hear you!”
Resigned and unable to think of an alternative, Jess and Chris climbed out of the shadows and into the open. The fire and logs cast dancing patterns across their faces. They stood side by side at the edge of the circle facing Kevin as a team.
“So you killed Kevin,” he stated addressing Jess. He propped the ax against a tree blade end down.
Jess bobbed her head, but kept her mouth shut tight.
“You look beautiful in his blood,” Kevin laughed darkly. “Like a demon princess.” He walked toward them, but not close enough they would feel safe enough to rush him. “It’s a shame more women aren’t like you, then maybe they’d be worth a damn.” He turned toward Chris. “Lucky catch. Did you enjoy watching her gut Mark?”
Chris averted his eyes.
“Don’t look away!” Kevin commanded. Chris met his gaze again. Kevin continued, “I’d like to propose a little something. We can play a little game.”
He went to the duct tape roll near the tent and then tossed it to Jess. “Tape up your husband, then we’ll talk.”
“No,” she said firmly.
“If you don’t then I’ll cut your goddamn head off. So take your pick,” Kevin responded nonchalantly.
Jess looked up at Chris. Chris looked hesitant, but he put his wrists together and held them out to her. She gave him the most apologetic look that she could muster as she began to tape him up. She tried to make it as loose as she dared without giving away that she was trying to give him a chance.
“Ankles, too,” Kevin ordered.
Jess helped Chris into a sitting position on the ground, setting her knife down as she did. She began to bind his legs, knowing that there was no way to make the tape loose enough that he’d be able to wriggle out. She took her time completing the task. Kevin didn’t say anything or make. Jess finished and faced Kevin trying to keep Chris just behind her.
“Good,” he said motioning. She threw the tape back to him and he set it aside. “Now, for the fun. You get to make a choice. You decide who lives and who dies. Your husband, a modern day Neanderthal who dragged you straight into danger by crying out your name when I told him to or he die? Or the blonde bimbo with the low IQ that you don’t personally know or give a shit about?”
Jess tilted her head and dipped to retrieve her cheap knife. “You’re not an option? I’d be happy to take a stab at you,” she said
surprised at how cool she was under the circumstances.
Kevin grinned in a way that made her uncomfortable. The writhing shadows of the fire made him look possessed. His eyes glittered with hatred and hellfire. “Make your pick,” he said.
Jess looked down at her husband. Chris’s face was neutral and unconcerned. They both knew which option she’d pick given this forced decision. No matter how much she wanted to save Steph, she couldn’t pick an almost stranger over her spouse. She pointed at Steph weakly and Kevin nodded.
Even in the dim light, she could see Steph’s back rising and falling with effort. Her lower back had gushed an endless flow of blood. It seemed pretty clear that Steph wasn’t long for the world as it was. She probably wouldn’t live on her own until morning. The ax had penetrated deep and had almost definitely hit vital organs and maybe even major arteries.
Jess looked up at Kevin, steadying herself and trying to retain consciousness. The smoke blew in a plume in her direction and her eyes burned and her lungs seared. It was just enough pain to make her feel alert.
Kevin eyed her curiously like a cat eyes a mouse before the kill. It was a mixture of amusement and knowledge of the satisfaction to come. Jess breathed in the fiery air one more time. Her lungs scorched and she centered herself a little more.
She took slow methodical steps toward Steph as Kevin continued to lean against the tree with the ax at his feet. Their eyes met as she walked by and she shuddered seeing the darkness of his soul.
When she reached Steph, she set down the knife and turned her over. Steph gasped for air like she’d never breathed a day in her life. Jess feared she was going to drown in her own lungs or bleed out before anyone could help her.
She leaned over Steph and put her face resting against the other woman’s so their cheeks were touching.
Jess whispered an apology. Steph lifted her arm, her hand twisted into a claw from the pain and the terror. The whites of Steph’s eyes were as huge as dinner plates and the pupils were dilated to nearly full black. Jess interlocked her hand with Steph’s and they came to an agreement. Jess held on tightly with her left hand while her right found the knife on the ground.
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